Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Ecclesiastical Fortification in the Middle Ages
- 2 The Larger Context: Languedoc in the Twelfth Century
- 3 The Buildings and the Documents: Maguelone, Agde, and Saint-Pons-de-Thomières
- 4 The Manning and Operation of Fortress-Churches
- 5 The Architectural Context: Sources and Parallels
- Conclusion
- Appendixes
- Tables
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Illustration credits
- Index
2 - The Larger Context: Languedoc in the Twelfth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Ecclesiastical Fortification in the Middle Ages
- 2 The Larger Context: Languedoc in the Twelfth Century
- 3 The Buildings and the Documents: Maguelone, Agde, and Saint-Pons-de-Thomières
- 4 The Manning and Operation of Fortress-Churches
- 5 The Architectural Context: Sources and Parallels
- Conclusion
- Appendixes
- Tables
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Illustration credits
- Index
Summary
The pressures that inspired ecclesiastical fortification in twelfth-century Languedoc were multiple and interconnected. The textual records for Maguelone, Agde, and Saint-Pons-de-Thomières describe threats from “Saracens,” pirates, heretics, and foreigners, beginning in the eleventh century. The Chronicon for Maguelone, for example, speaks of fear of Saracen pirates at Maguelone during the late-eleventh-century episcopacy of Arnaud:
In the time of the Lord Arnaud, bishop of Maguelone, the church at Maguelone was not inhabited, out of fear of the Saracens. For there was a seaport… through which Saracen galleys had free access to the island, and frequently carried off from there whatever they might discover. And there were four chaplains assigned there who… celebrated Mass there, but lately do not dare to be at church out of fear of the pirates.
(Appendix 7)Suger of Saint-Denis expressed similar concerns after his visit to the abbey in 1118. In his Life of Louis the Fat, he reports that Maguleone is
a tiny island in the sea, for which there sufficed with single bishop and priests, a scanty and contemptible household, unique and isolated, … nonetheless very well fortified … with a wall because of the attacks by sea of the roving Saracens.
(Appendix 5)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fortress-Churches of LanguedocArchitecture, Religion and Conflict in the High Middle Ages, pp. 53 - 65Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994